Berlin panda babies thriving — and cute — at 2 weeks old

Updated
8:43 am EDT, Friday, September 13, 2019

BERLIN (AP) — Berlin's zoo says giant panda twins born two weeks ago are thriving and already showing signs of how they'll look once they mature, with black ears and black rings around their tiny eyes.

The two looked somewhat like bubblegum covered in lint after their Aug. 31 birth, but "from the gradual black and white coloring of the twins you can see they're starting to look like mama," zoo director Andreas Knieriem said Friday.

Initially, zookeepers helped them gain weight by feeding them bottles of milk pumped from mother Meng Meng, but the zoo says they're now fine feeding all on their own.

The cubs aren't yet named. The zoo has distanced itself from a Berlin newspaper poll suggesting the names "Hong" and "Kong" in solidarity with protests there.